Notorious figures / Sports
Larry Nassar
born 1963 · former sports physician, convicted sex offender
Former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State team physician from Farmington Hills, convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of young athletes and imprisoned for life in effect.
- Born
Farmington Hills, Michigan
age 63- Birth name
- Lawrence Gerard Nassar
- Detroit years
- 1963–1981
- Field
- Notorious figures, Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Nassar was born in 1963 in Farmington Hills, a suburb northwest of Detroit, into a Lebanese-American Catholic family, and grew up there. At fifteen he began working as a student athletic trainer for the girls' gymnastics team at North Farmington High School, from which he graduated in 1981. He studied kinesiology at the University of Michigan and osteopathic medicine at Michigan State University, and became a team physician for the U.S. women's national gymnastics team and at Michigan State. Over more than two decades he sexually abused hundreds of girls and young women under the guise of medical treatment. After a 2016 newspaper investigation and his arrest, he was sentenced in 2017 and 2018 to federal and state prison terms that ensure he will never be released. The case brought resignations at Michigan State and USA Gymnastics and reforms in the protection of athletes.
Highlights
- Team physician for USA Gymnastics, 1996–2014, and at Michigan State University
- Sentenced in 2017–2018 to consecutive federal and state terms amounting to life
- More than 265 identified victims, per the Michigan court
- Grew up in Farmington Hills; North Farmington High School, 1981